HoUinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



OEC 2S 1902 
D. of D. 



s-v- 





Santa Bakbaka Homes. 



Santa Barbara. 

BY CHAS. AMADON MOODY. 

H 

G|rT has possibly been borne in upon readers of this magazine — 
I perhaps on nearly every one who knows anything at all about 
"* California — that the climatic and other conditions of the State 
as a whole are such as to make living better worth while than any- 
where else this side of Paradise. But even in California there are 
grades of climatic excellence — from "better to best" — though the 
precise grading of any particular locality, it must be admitted, will 
depend verj' largely on the individual taste of the observer. In the 




A Santa Bakpaka Stkket. 



Photo, by Leach. 



" best" class, by general consent, Santa Barbara must be ranked, 
and not one of those who know and love it best will admit any lower 
place for it than the very head of the list. 

It is unquestionable that the topographic conditions of Santa Bar- 
bara — and these are, of course, most important factors in modifying 
climate — are not precisely matched anywhere else in the State. The 
general trend of the coast line is from northwest to southeast. At 
Point Concepcion (about two-thirds of the distance from north to 
south) the line swerves sharply inward, and for about seventy miles 
runs as nearly as possible due east, then resuming again the south- 
easterly direction. Parallel with the coast, and only a few miles 
distant from it — sometimes, indeed, sending foothill spurs right 
down to the water's edge — the Santa Ynez range of mountains rises 



Reprinted from November, I'Wl, Land ok SuNSHr.XK, Los Anueh's, C.il. 



SANTA BARBARA. 




A Panoramic View 



abruptly more than three thousand feet, forming a permanent bar- 
rier to the northeast winds. And to complete the protection of this 
sheltered spot, twenty-five miles out to sea the Channel Islands 
stand as a lofty barrier against storms from the west or southwest. 
At a point on this southerly shore where the beach curves in a 
crescent miles long and the foothills stand apart to make room for a 
broad and gently sloping valley, is the city of Santa Barbara. Shut 
in, therefore, on three sides by mountains and hills, opening only to 
the south upon the sun-warmed and quiet waters of Santa Barbara 
Channel, the climate of the city is singularly uniform throughout 
the year. There is no extreme heat in summer — hardly even a " hot 




Bath House. 



SANTA BARBARA. 




OF Santa Barbara. 



Photo, bj' Reed. 



day." The thermometer will hardly reg-ister 90° three tiines during- 
the year, and has reached 100° but twice in a generation, influenced 
in both cases by the forest fires in the near-by mountains. Extremes 
of cold are even more conspicuously absent, the freezing- point (32° ) 
having- been recorded but three times in fifteen years, and then only 
for a short time just before sunrise. 

This is not the place for extended records of temperature, but a 
few striking- statements of facts and comparisons must find room. 
The average monthly temperature at Santa Barbara shows a range 
of less than fourteen degrees — from 53° in January to 66.6° in 
August. This is less than the difference between Portland, Maine and 




Del Mar and Boulevard. 



Photo, bj' Newton. 



SANTA BARBARA. 




Santa Barbara Roses. 



Photo, by Leach. 



Philadelphia for the single month of May. It is also less than the 
difference at Atlantic City between April and June. No month at 
Santa Barbara is so cold as April at Atlantic City nor so warm as 
June at the same place. Perhaps, however, the most vivid impres- 
sion of the uniformity of the year-round climate at this favored spot 
will be found in a comparative table, which shows that January in 
Santa Barbara corresponds'in average temperature to May at Nan- 
tucket, February to May at Atlantic City, March to May at Norfolk, 
Va., April to May at Portland, Me., May to the same month at New 




Santa Barbara and the Cha.nnkl. (Anacapa Island in the distance) 



SANTA BARBARA. 




Sport at Low Tide. 



Pliolo. by Reed. 



Haven, Ct.. June to May in New York City, July to May at Phila- 
delphia, Aug-ust to May at Washington, September to May at Brook- 
lyn, October to May at New London, Ct., and November and Decem- 
ber to May at Portland, Me. Truly here the dream of a land where 
the year is " one eternal May" is fairly realized. 

Just a few more statistics on the weather question, and we shall 
have done. The average velocity of the wind is about four miles an 




Treasure Trove Along Shore. 



Photo, by Leaoli. 




A Home Place in Mission Canon. 




Sycamore Canon. Dkive. 



Photos, by Reed. 



SANTA BARBARA. 



hour, the total wind movement being- nearly equal winter and 
summer. The average annual relative humidity is 71°, being lower 
in winter than in summer, and lower throug-hout the year than at 
other points on the coast. One may 
count on about 240 absolutely clear 
days during the year, from 50 to 60 
fair days, 30 to 40 cloudy daj's, and 
about 30 days during which some 
rain falls. Practically all the rain 
falls between November and April. 
Such fogs as appear come in mostly 
during the night and disappear rap- 
idly before the rays of the sun. 

These figures may seem somewhat 
dull, but the significance of them for 
health and comfort can hardly be 
overestimated. They mean that there 
is no day in the year when the in- 
valid need fear that weather condi- 
tions will place any obstacle in the 
way of regaining strength, nor when 
the person in more robust health 
need have the full joy of living clouded 
by discomfort from that source. Taken 
in connection with the perfect drain- 
age, the fine mountain water, the free- 
dom from both endemic and epidemic 
disease, and the constant invitation to 
and opportunity for outdoor living, they 
mean that Santa Barbara is one of the 
healthiest spots in the world. And 
the phenomenally low death-rate con- 
firms this deduction beyond possible 
doubt. 

One conspicuous and interesting re- 
sult of these conditions is the great 
variety and luxuriance of plant-life, 
both native and exotic. On this point, 
Dr. F. Franceschi, who has for many 
years mainly occupied himself with 
introducing and acclimatizing new 
flowers, shrubs and trees from all 
parts of the world, writes : 

"Santa Barbara is known at present 
all over the world as the place where 
the largest number of plants, from 
widely difl"erent climates, have coii- 




Phulc). by Nl-\vIoii. 



10 SANTA BARBARA. 

greg-ated to live happily together, and often will thrive with more 
vigor than in their native countries. Mainly two factors have 
contributed to bring these results. The tirst is nature, namely, the 
special topographic and climatic conditions of this spot. The local 
ineteorological records for over 30 years, when carefully compared 
with other localities of Southern California, unquestionably show 
that Santa Barbara enjoys the privilege of higher rainfall, and of 
less variation between the different seasons of the year, consequently 
the growth of most plants is continuous, and they will attain here 
larger size and come into bearing much earlier than in other places. 
The other factor is man, who in this case has wonderfully cooperated 
with nature. Ever since the first establishment of the Old Mission, 
more than a century ago, a much larger number of plants was intro- 
duced here from foreign countries than in other localities of Cali- 
fornia, and a smaller num.ber of them have been lost, because they 
found here more congenial conditions. At the beginning of the new 
century, it is safe to say, that there are grown, in the open, at Santa 
Barbara not less than 150 different species of palms, about the same 
number of conifers, £0 species of bamboos, about 300 of vines or 
climbers, and something like 2,000 different species between trees, 
shrubs and perennials. They have convened here from, the hottest 
and from the coldest regions of the globe, as well as from the tem- 
perate one, and they combine to make a display of vegetation that 
have no rivals anywhere else." 

As for roses and the more familiar garden flowers their profusion 
at all seasons of the year is fairly bewildering. Even more interest- 
ing to the botanist, or, indeed, to most genuine flower lovers, are the 
native wild-flowers which, in their season, carpet field and hillside. 

But climate and flowers by no means exhaust the natural charms 
of Santa Barbara. Picturesquely located as it is — in the lap of the 
mountains with the summer sea at its feet — one might spend many a 
week in riding, driving, or walking through the near-bj' country, re- 
turning each day before nightfall, and making each day a trip both 
new and interesting. From the smoothly macadamized boulevard, 
which runs for a couple of miles right along the edge of the Pacific, 
to the steep and rugged trails which lift rapidly to the summit of the 
Santa Ynez range is but a few miles, and one may get almost any 
desired combination of ocean, valley and mountain scenery within 
the compass of a few hours. Canon and mesa and smooth, hard, 
sandy beach, orchards of olive, lemon or walnut, miles of densely- 
timbered forest reserve, acres of strawberries from which ripe fruit 
may be gathered any week in the year, leaping waterfalls, and long, 
quiet roads through fertile valleys dotted with lovely homes — these 
offer but a suggestion of the choice that is near at hand. 

For .salt-water bathing, if the ocean itself — with a temperature 
from 68° to 74° for much of the year and rarely below 60° at any 
time — does not precisely suit, there is a dainty new bath-house on the 
Plaza del Mar. which should meet the most exacting requirements. 




Ox THK Channel Islands. 



Pholos. by Reed. 



12 



SANTA BARBARA. 



For boating- or yachting, the Santa Barbara channel is one of the 
finest stretches in the world, offering ample sea room for an extended 
run yet so protected as to be entirely safe at all times. The trip 
across the channel to the Channel Islands — San Miguel, Santa Rosa, 
Santa Cruz and Anacapa — is one of great interest. They are, in 
reality, only the tops of what was once a mountain range, parallel 
with the Santa Ynez and a part of the mainland. Their shores are 
in the main very precipitous, perpendicular bluffs often rising hun- 
dreds of feet right out of the sea. Picturesque and profusely covered 
with vegetation, one of them might easily, in the right hands, be- 
come a pleasure resort unrivalled anywhere except by Catalina 




An Old Adobe. 



Photo, by Reed. 



Island. Even the great tuna, which has attracted fishermen from 
all over the world to Catalina, is foitnd here in abundance, while the 
yellowtail, sea-bass, jew fish, barracuda, and others offer sport 
a-plenty to devotees of the rod and reel. 

What of the city which has grown up amid such surroundings ? 
In the first place, it is a little city as cities go nowadays, counting 
scant 8,000 residents within the two miles square which bound it. 
And it is a restful city — "sleepy" it might be called by those who 
count life best occupied in madly chasing dollars some of the time 
and throwing them away the rest of it. If to be prosperous, to be con- 
tented, to be beautiful, to be reasonably well-satisfied with itself but 
continually striving for solid improvement be symptoms of sleepi- 
ness, Santa Barbara has them all — and is proud of it. 



SANTA BARBARA. 



13 




A MoDliK^• Adobe IN Santa Barbara. Photo, by Leach. 




The Patio Entrance. 



One of the oldest cities in 
California — it was founded in 
1782 by Fray Junipero Serra — 
the " local color" of Santa Bar- 
bara has retained a deeper tinge 
from the years before the Ameri- 
can occupation than any other 
place in the State approaching 
its size, and is all the more inter- 
esting for that reason. Full 
twenty per cent, of its popula- 
tion are of Spanish descent, and 
one considerable part of the city, 
but a stone's throw from the 
chief thoroughfare, is still given 
over to the old adobe houses. 
The Old Mission, on the heights 
just outside the city limits, is the 
host preserved mission building 
in California, and the only one 
in which the ministration of the 
r^ranciscans has never been inter- 
ruiJted. It is now the headquar- 
ters of the Franciscan Order on 
this coast, and near it has just 
been completed an impressive 
stone building to house a college 




for the training of young men 
desiring to enter the order. 
The Mission was established 
in 1786, but most of the pres- 
ent buildings date no further 
back than 1820. If there 
were nothing else to attract 
to Santa Barbara, the Mis- 
sion alone would repay a long 
pilgrimage to one who can 
really see and understand. 

The street names of Santa 
Barbara are worth an article 
by themselves. No wise alder- 
manic body has cancelled the 
historic old Spanish and In- 
dian names to replace them by 
numbers or to embalm the 
memory of local politicians. 
The consequence is that 
every name has a story at- 
tached, and one might spend 
time with less profit than in 
learning the names and the 
stories. For instance, Canon 
Perdido (lost cannon) street 
commemorates the stealing by 
patriotic native Californians 
of a brass twelve-pounder 
brought here in 1847 by the in- 
vading American troops. The 
local authorities could not or 
would not restore it upon de- 
mand, whereupon the militarj' 
governor fined the town five 
hundred dollars, and sent a 
cavalry company up from Los 
Ang-eles to enforce collection, 
yuinientos (500) street was 
named in rueful honor of the 
fine, while the governor who 
imposed it — Mason — also im- 
posed his name upon the adja- 
cent street. Salsipuede ("get- 
out-if-you-can " ) street is 
seamed with ravines and 
gulches, while Anapamu, Yan- 
onali and Valario were named 
for Indians of various renown. 



SANTA BARBARA. 



15 



Conspicuously a city of refined and cultivated homes, Santa Bar- 
bara's educational facilities are excellent. Some 1,700 children are 
enrolled at the public schools, which include kinderg-arten, grammar 
and high schools, and a manual training school — the pioneer, by the 
way, of sloyd work in the State. Besides these are a business col- 
lege, a collegiate school, St. Anthony's College (Franciscan) and the 
St. Vincent school for girls. The public library, with over 13,000 
bound volumes, and a large and well-selected list of periodicals, is 
open to visitors as well as to residents of the city. 

The clubs form a prominent feature of Santa Barbara social life. 
The Union Club includes the more prominent of the older citizens, 





Thk New Franciscan C(ji,lkgk: 



Plioto. by EdwartU 



while the Santa Barbara Club is more favored by the younger men. 
The Santa Barbara Country Club has its beautiful house and grounds 
at Montecito on a bluff overlooking the ocean, and is hospitable and 
delightful. The Women's Club has its own quarters and is a factor 
of growing importance in the community. The Polo Club, with a 
superb field, the Golf Club, whose links are exceedingly picturesque 
as well as " sporting,"' and the Gun Club, with an uiuisually line 
preserve on Lake Guadalupe, till their respective spheres to the sat- 
isfaction of both members and guests. 

Only just outside the category of clubs stands the Chamber of 
Commerce, which has its own home on the main street, and keeps 
open doors, with a cordial welcome on tap for all comers. 

Of the hotels, the Arlington's supremacy has long been unchal- 
lenged, but there are many excellent smaller places, and a long- 
talked-of plan to put up a superb modern hotel fronting on the ocean 
seems to be nearing realization. Certainly the opening to through 



16 



SANTA BARBARA. 



travel of the Southern Pacific's Coast Line between Los Angeles and 
San Francisco — iioped for and dreamed about for many years, but 




The Arlington Hotel. 



Photo, bv Reed. 



barely now accomplished — will add immensely to the tide of,' tourist 
travel to Santa Barbara. 

It is safer to refrain from prophecy. Yet when so many condi- 
tions unite to make Santa Barbara a perfect home for people 
of culture and refinement who can choose where they shall live, one 
risks nothing in predicting that it will become one of the most beauti- 
ful and attractive cities in all the lands. Never a "great" city, 
never a commercial metropolis — these would blot its peculiar charm. 
Only just as perfect a place to home in as there is anywhere. 

Of all the holy calendar, tradition has it that Saint Barbara was 
the fairest to look upon. As she assumed the crown of virgin mar- 
tyrdom rather more than sixteen centuries ago, this assertion cannot 
well be either confirmed or disproved. But let her have been never 
so lovely and gracious, there will be few to dispute that the City of 
Santa Barbara worthily bears her name. 




Photo, bv Newton. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



017 135 888 7^ 



average:s 

OF TEMPEKATUKp;, RAINFALL, KKLATIVE HUMIDITY, 
AND WIND MOVEMENT, AT 

Santa Barbara, California, 

AS OBSERVED DURING THE PAST QUARTER OF A CENTURY. 



W ju 



<ir< 



o ^ 



<i^ 



lU 








>, 




3 


■^ 


nn 


<u 


T3 


n 




3 


ri 


5 


W 


K 


0) 


a; 
bi 




rt 


0/ 




<i; 


> 


S 


« 


<1- 









January 


74.8 


37.1 


53.5 


67 


3.73 


3.5 


February 


78.2 


36.1 


54.8 


69 


3.21 


4.0 


March 


79.8 


38.3 


r-- ^7 


70 


2.28 


4.5 


April 


82.0 


40.8 


58.0 


71 


1.18 


4.6 


May 


82.2 


44.5 


59.3 


73 


.36 


4.5 


June 


85.4 


47.9 


62.5 


74 


.10 


5.0 


July 


86.7 


52.3 


65.2 


76 


.02 


4.2 


August 


87.0 


53.5 


66. 7 


75 


.00 


4.0 


September 


88.2 


50.5 


66.0 


75 


.22 


3.6 


October 


87.9 


47.3 


62.6 


72 


.73 


3.5 


November 


84.0 


43.2 


60.0 


66 


1.54 


3.1 


December 


77.1 


38.6 


55.7 


65 


3.63 


3.5 


Means 


82.7 


44.1 


60.0 

1--: 


71 


17.00 


4.0 



Hollinger 
pH8. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



017 135 888 7 



Hnllinorpr C.nrr*. 



